Ship drives with a drive machine, a transmission, a propeller shaft and a mounting arrangement for securing the drive components in the hull of the ship, such that the drive machine and the transmission are arranged inside the ship's hull, are known. A satisfactory mounting arrangement for such a ship drive in the ship's hull has to fulfill a number of requirements. Firstly, the mounting arrangement has to absorb and transfer to the hull of the ship both the weight of the drive aggregate consisting of the drive machine and the transmission, and also the thrust force produced by the propeller during operation.
Secondly, the torques produced by the drive machine and the propeller shaft during operation have to be supported. For example, in the ship drive described above the connecting flange between the drive machine and the transmission is particularly highly loaded by bending torques, which are caused by the propeller thrust force, or propeller thrust for short, and the weight of the drive machine and the transmission.
Thirdly, the mounting arrangement has to absorb vibrations excited in particular by a drive machine, for example an internal combustion engine that is running. Such vibrations should be prevented from being transmitted to the ship's hull and so giving rise to troublesome noise or vibration damage to the ship's hull.
A mounting arrangement for a ship drive designed to achieve those aims is known for example from EP 0792234 B1. That document describes a so-termed three-point mounting system as the mounting arrangement, in which a ship motor and a ship drive are mounted in an elaborate arrangement in the hull of a ship.